Interactive Fiction in faith teaching

I am interested in links to works of IF which address aspects of faith or religion.

This is a potentially sensitive topic, so please understand any statement you apply to a piece of work may resonate further.

This is not an invitation to share opinions on personal faith, unless you are confident you can express that in a non-threatening way.

But with all that being said, does God feature much in Interactive Fiction?

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I can think of several.

There’s Cana According to Micah, a well-done game where you are at the wedding Jesus first performed miracles.

Jarod’s Journey is a bible-inspired journey game that was mocked at the time for its effusive evangelical tone. I think it might be a subtle parody.

Bez wrote Queer in Public, an essay about being Christian and LGBTQ+.

Eric Eve incorporated christian themes in many games, most notably in All Hope Abandon. He is, I believe, a professor of theology.

Paul Panks wrote a pretty bad MS-DOS game called Jesus of Nazareth that is mostly a fighting simulator.

I wrote a few simple twine adventures for kids based on the Book of Mormon, called Book of Mormon Adventures.

Just this week someone released Skillick’s Bride, a game also about my faith (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), but with more of a critical tone and a horror genre.

Hunger Daemon is an excellent (IF-comp winning) game that features a fake, Lovecraftian religion as well as a lot of real Jewish religious material. Gamlet is a crass and weird game that’s pretty well-made and which features a Jewish protagonist (the game is offensive but not, as far as I can tell, towards Jews specifically).

Ironheart is a commercial (and pretty popular!) choicescript game where you time travel to the crusades but with mechs, and your religious beliefs can shape the game and evolve over time.

Burn the Koran and Die was intended to be offensive towards muslims.

A game in this IFComp, A Christmas Feast at King Arthur’s Court, contains many Christian themes.

Many games borrow elements of Voodoo/Vaudou, but are generally inaccurate. Gris et Jaune delves the most into the actual religion.

The 12:54 to Asgard is a beautiful, ambitious, but flawed game that combines elements of Greek, Christian, and Norse Mythology.

Another IFComp winner, Vespers, investigates a corrupted and dying Christian group of Monks.

Varicella touches on priest pedophilia as an essential story element.

Bellclap is a short game where you, God, talk to the parser, an angel, to command the main character, a human.

Ariadne in Aeaea features elements of Greek mythology. Deus ex Ceviche and Abbess Otilia’s Life and Death features Abbesses, with the first being a bizarre fish religion and the second a standard Christian one.

Grim Baccaris’s games often feature constructed alien religions.

Robin and Orchid, an IFComp high-placer, takes place in a Christian church and features many elements of Christianity, but not as the main content.

Bee, no longer available in its original form, is an Emily Short game about Christian homeschooling.

Tenth Plague, by Lynnea Glasser, has you take on the form of the tenth plague of Egypt itself.

Voices is a game about a Joan-of-Arc-like person, with a twist.

Edit: Actually, I forgot I had a list of these before that has several more games:
https://ifdb.org/viewlist?id=qujsklq1vy1m8ojz

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Several?! :stuck_out_tongue:

Hm, my addition to this topic is another IFDB list, which specifically sought ‘games with Christian themes’. It has some overlap with mathbrush’s list. There are other decent suggestions on it, then some answers of games that probably only include a single specific incident of Christianity.

-Wade

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That’s great, I’ll look at those. Thank you.

Thanks for setting all this down, Brian. I might check out Eric Eve first.

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One of my main not-yet-made-at-all IF projects (can something be a project if you haven’t even really started it? but it’s been in my head for years now and keeps returning) centres on religion, and this topic makes me really want to sit down and write it. Now only to find some time to finally do so! :roll_eyes: :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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In addition to @mathbrush’s list, try:

  • Genre = Religion at CASA
  • Genre = Religious at IFDB
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A striking list, more for what it doesn’t include than what it does: barely anything Islamic (and what is there is pejorative) and nothing Indic. That’s not to suggest any bias on Brian’s part - it does seem an accurate reflection of what’s there on IFDB - but worthy of note nonetheless. That’s perhaps not surprising considering the probable makeup of the IF community, but something that’s not often brought into view. It seems the major Islamic, Buddhist, Sikh or Hindu etc. work of IF is still to be written.

A quick look reveals this based on the Ramayana: The Ramayana - Details but not a lot else.

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That’s a really good point. The world of IF is littered with games based on religion, some fictional, some real. Those based on real religions are usually based on Christianity or the stories in the Bible.

The other religions provide a gold mine for inspiration. Any takers?

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This year’s IFComp entry Wabewalker is based on Buddhism.

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I would have thought that some Taoist ideas percolate into any story with a philosophical theme.
But then, I did specify God so maybe I shouldn’t muddy the waters too much :yin_yang:

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I wrote a Christian Twine game called The Body. I’m not sure if it’s listed here but it’s on itch.io to play if you like. The Body by KayIsGames

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Inspired by @mathbrush’s list, I decided to give Bellclap a go. The protagonist is a somewhat dense but true believer, so you have to be patient with him while leading him to understanding the solution to his problem.

The protagonist-parser-player relations are mapped onto a believer-angelic messenger-God dynamic.

A lot about this lighthearted game can serve as a jumping-off point for profound discussion about the Old Testament relation between God and His people, about the differences with a New Testament God, about the attitude of believer towards his Maker,…

I’m not very far yet, but it’s well worth a play.

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There’s also the three ‘Bible Retold’ games:

IMHO, Following a Star is a much better game than The Lost Sheep. It was actually one my favourite games in IFComp 2010 (I think I gave it an 8 rating), and I was surprised that it only placed 13th out of 26 games. It currently has a 3/5 star rating on the IFDB (based on 12 votes).

I haven’t played the older The Bread and the Fishes game.

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